Many of us use it everyday. It’s widely understood around the world. But what does it mean and where does it come from?
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Are you au fait with ok?
“POLYply 7: translation” London event
Just heard about an interesting sounding event tonight (Thursday 10 February): POLYply 7 is an event in central London themed around translation, featuring works and performances from David Rule, Jooyeon Park, Caroline Rabourdin, Tim Atkins, and Peter Manson.
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Posted in London, translation Leave a comment
Multilingual London: mosaic of “Englishes”
Although we tend to talk about English as if it is something monolithic, there are numerous Englishes. Tune into the conversations happening around you in a café or on the Tube, and you’ll make out a mosaic of variants.
So claims an interesting article entitled “Language can’t stay still – just listen to London” in London’s Evening Standard earlier this week. The author Henry Hitchings has just writen a book on “proper English” and relays a story which will sound familiar to many Londoners:
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Posted in dialects, English, grammar, London Leave a comment
Picturing Chinese New Year in London
This year the Chinese New Year ran from 3 February. It is Year of the Rabbit, associated with new beginnings and good luck. We captured some of the scenes on London’s streets during the New Year celebrations last Sunday.
Chinese New Year in London.
This work by WorldAccent Translation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Posted in Chinese, London, pictures 5 Comments
Google: “Translations aren’t perfect”
Google Vice President Dr Vint Cerf has warned about relying too much on the accuracy of translation from Google Translate. He should know: not only is he Google’s “Chief Internet Evangelist” but he is widely regarded as one of the “fathers” of the internet.
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Posted in foreign language, machine translation, translation 1 Comment
timeo googletranslate et dona ferentes
Google took the unusual step of blogging in Latin last week, as they added this ancient language to Google Translate. I’ve written before about the dangers of entrusting a website translation to a machine and how the Mounties took a fall.
But how well have Google done with Latin?
Posted in Latin, machine translation, professional 2 Comments
Searching for professional web design?
People turn to web designers for all sorts of sites these days, from hobby blogs to business websites. The obvious place to look for a web designer is the internet, but where to start?
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101010: A Global Day of Doing
This Sunday has been dubbed “A Global Day of Doing” by carbon reduction campaign 10:10.
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Does foreign language have a place in translating literature?
It sounds a mad question, but “Does foreign language have a place in translating literature?” Put differently, when translating literature, how many words should be left in the original language? Should “foreign” words in English-language texts convey a sense of a culture, or be used as a last resort for the “untranslatable”?
These questions are interesting in their right, but are also far from academic considering the recent success of some novels translated into English. After all, Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy are predicted by some to become the three top-selling novels of all time in Britain, overtaking Dan Brown’s paperback, The Da Vinci Code, which sold 4.5 million.
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Posted in foreign language, literature, localisation, Stieg Larsson Leave a comment
Bilingual brain brilliance
Bilingualism has hit the headlines this weekend, with some fascinating new research findings. Bilingualism is a brilliant skill in my opinion. To be able to speak fluently in more than one language, or even to think in more than one language, not only aids communication but must surely help expand your view of the world and philosophical approach to it.
Bilingualism – mental recycling?
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